The new government led by Narendera Modi has an immediate task to give sanction for prosecution of around 14 IAS and IPS officers from various ministries and government departments. The Central Vigilance Commission is awaiting the approval for more than four months now.
Modi during his election campaign had promised to deal with the corruption cases strictly without caring about the allegiances of the accused. Modi had said if elected to power he would set up special courts for speedy trials for disposal of corruption cases against politicians and corrupt bureaucrats would also face the action.
As of now a total of 26 cases involving 57 officials are pending for sanction of prosecution at CVC, although, a committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee had earlier recommended that the permission should be given within three months.
Most of the senior IAS officials involved in the cases are from department of personnel and training of ministry of public grievances and pensions. The former secretary of ministry of home affairs, Sada Kant Shukla, principal secretary NDMC, Parimal Rai, former chairman Chennai Port Trust, K Suresh, principal secretary DoPT, BP Acharya, secretary DoPT, LV Subramanyam, vice-chancellor, Indian Maritime University, P Vijayan, former CMD, SECL, MP Dixit, secretary DoPT, M Samuel are a few of the senior officials whose sanction for prosecution is pending.
As per the CVC data out of the 26 cases involving 57 officials, six cases are pending at Delhi Jal Board, four with ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions, three with ministry of home affairs and two each in ministry of railways and Bank of India. Similarly one case each involving officials of Punjab National Bank, Industrial Development Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, ministry of coal & mines and ministry of shipping, ministry of environment & forests, ministry of defence and ministry of food and supply is also pending.
The CVC has been regularly reminding the departments concerned about the pending cases but as of now none of these departments or ministries has responded. In some cases the sanction was proposed way back in 2012 and early 2013 and many of these cases have been registered more than two years back. The CVC has put the list on their website as well, so that none of the departments would have an excuse of not knowing about the case. Besides, people would also remain informed about it.
Earlier this month, Supreme Court ruling that Central Bureau of Investigation does not need prior sanction to initiate inquiries against senior government officials (joint secretary and above), has already created ripples in bureaucracy. Immediately after the ruling, CBI chief Ranjit Sinha said they would start investigations against more than ten senior officials in ministries.
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